Pump Up the Jams, Bro!!

Get in the Zone with the Right Tunes!

Great Music! Great Workouts!

Music has the ability to make or break my workouts! That being said, I am constantly looking for tunes that help me to focus, get "in the zone" and keep me motivated. When the music gets stale, I leap into boredom status and start thinking about ways to run for the hills...AAaaAAaaaaHhHhhh!!! On the flip-side, when I'm feeling the great music vibes, my workouts are longer, performance is better, and I am able to push myself to the max...just one more mile, I wanna hear this song!! There are certain genres that help me to set the correct paces for various running styles, terrain, and distances...and don't worry, I plan to share my playlists, pass it on!

Two Articles Explaining the Importance of Music and Workouts

Article #1 and Article #2

I have scoured the internet for playlist ideas, and I gotta be honest, they were all terrible! My friends have pretty decent suggestions, but I have decided to let you peep in on my Running Playlists (long and short distance), Yoga, and Cross-training Playlists. Help everybody out by leaving your playlist tracks in the comments section! Check back for updates!

Deadmau5

Dub-Step, Electronica and Up-Beat Music

Suggestion: Short Distance Power Runs, Cross-Training and when, you need a pick-me-up!

Dem Tracks, Yo...
The Octopus Project: Whitby, Korakrit, Fuguefat, Truck, Snow Tip Cap Mountain and The Adjustor
Kennedy: Karate
Soul Coughing: Super Bon Bon 
Lettuce: Bowler
Underworld: Cowgirl and Born Slippy Nuxx
GZA: Hip Hop Fury
NIN: The Hand That Feeds, Closer, Something I Can Never Have, 1000000 and Every Day is Exactly The Same
Tim Berg: Alcoholic and Bromance
Lusine: 2 Dots
Fake Blood: The Dozens and I Think I Like It
Of Monsters and Men: Little Talks
Flight of the Conchords: Foux Du Fafa
Uffie: Difficult
Black Moth Super Rainbow: All the Friends You Can Eat and Windshield Smasher, 

Chemical Brothers: *Escape Velocity, *Another World, *Dissolve, Horse Power, *Wonders of the Deep and *Snow
Steve Aoki Remix: *Pursuit of Happiness-kid Cudi, Livin' My Love and Looks Like Sex

Skrillex:* Fu***** Die Part 1 and 2, Summit and Ruffneck

Chinese Man: Miss Chang, *Bunni Groove, *I've Got That Tune, Racing with the Sun, Down, Pandi Groove, Ordinary Man, Chinese Man and Indi Groove.

Avicii: *Penguin, *Levels, Silhouettes, Sweet Dreams, *My Feelings For You and *Fade Into Darkness.
J Dilla: So Far to Go
Busta Rhymes: Respect My Conglomerate, Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See, Turn It Up/Fire It Up
Jay-Z/Kanye West: Clique
Steppenwolf: Born to be Wild
The Talking Heads: Burning Down the House, Psycho Killer and This Must Be the Place
Lipps Inc.: Funky Town
Young MC: Bust A Move
V.I.C: Wobble
Crystal Fighters: At Home, Follow and Plage
Jay-Z: Run This Town, No Church In The Wild, and Lucifer
Phish: Heavy Things, Lizards, Mike's Song, Gotta' Jibboo, Sample In A Jar and Loving Cup
CCR: Suzie Q, Fortunate Son, Down on the Corner and Bad Moon Rising
Grateful Dead: Truckin', Touch of Grey and Casey Jones
Radiohead: Idioteque, National Anthem and Kid A
Imagine Dragons: Demons and It's Time
Fatboy Slim; Because We Can and Praise You
Raekwon: Still Strugglin'
Mase: Feel So Good and Welcome Back
STS9: Scheme, Golden Gate, When the Dust Settles and Tokyo...find shows on the Archives Link Below (Free Downloads)
Neutral Milk Hotel: King of Carrots Hill Flowers Part 1
Noah and the Whale: 2 Atoms in a Molecule, Life is Life and Life Goes On
Florence: What the Water Gave Me and Sweet Nothing

Flux Pavilion: *Haunt You
Infected Mushroom: The Pretender
OneRepublic: Feel Again
Talking Heads: This Must Be The Place and Naive Melody

Telepopmusik: *Just Breathe

Passion Pit: *Sleepyhead, Let Your Love Grow Tall, and every song they have!
MGMT: Kids, Time to Pretend and Electric Feel

The Temper Trap: Sweet Disposition

DeadMau5: *Raise Your Weapon Remix and *Hi Friend
GZA: Hip Hop Fury
Rage Against The Machine: Sleep Now in The Fire, Bulls on Parade and Calm Like a Bomb.
MIA: Paper Planes 

Perpetual Groove: Mayday, Funky Town (Cover), Two Shores, Mr. T, Green Tea, Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes (cover), TTFPJ and Old Friend. Anything...find shows on the Archives Link Below (Free Downloads)

Lotus: *Spiritualize, *Bellweather, Age of Inexperience, Tip of the Tongue and Ridalin.
Anything...find shows on the Archives Link Below (Free Downloads)

Pretty Lights: *Hot Like Sauce, Still Night, So Much In the Dark, Looking for Love, Total Fascination, I Can See It In Your Face, More Important than MJ and Finally Moving Remix

Vampire Weekend: Mansard Roof, Oxford Comma, Campus, White Sky, Run, I think Ur a Contra, and Horchata
Johnny Cash: God's Gonna Cut You Down, Hung My Head and Hurt
Janis Joplin: Coo Coo, Cry Baby and A Woman Left Lonely
LCD Soundsystem: Dance Yrself Clean, All My Friends, Home, Drunk Girls, All I Want, Pow Pow, 45:33 and I Can Change.
RJD2: Ghostwriter
Biggie: Big Poppa, Mo Money, Mo Problems and Hypnotize 

Eminem:Till I Collapse
Disco Biscuits: Anything...find shows on the Archives Link Below (Free Downloads)

Kanye West: Gold Digger, All of the Lights, Jesus Walks and Love Lockdown. 

Garbage: Push-it, When I Grow up and Cherry Lips

Rihanna: Umbrella and Diamonds
Lil Wayne: She Will, Mrs. Officer, Money to Blow and Duffle Bag Boy.

Beyonce: Baby Boy, Single Ladies, Bonnie & Clyde, Crazy In Love and Ego. 

Moby: Porcelain, *Flower, I'm In Love, The Broken Places,  *Machete, Soul to Love, South Side and Lie Down in Darkness. 
Drake: Take Care and Forever
Sublime: Caress Me Down, Santeria, Rivers of Babylon, 40oz to Freedom and What I Got
Matisyahu: *One Day, Smash Lies, I Believe in Love, Fire of Freedom, Breathe Easy, King Without a Crown and Chop 'Em Down.
Dr. Dre: Forgot About Dre, Guilty Conscience and I Need A Doctor.

Paul Oakenfold: Rock Your Body Remix and Starry Eyed Surprise

Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody

Ween: The Mollusk, Roses Are Free, Voodoo Lady and Transdermal Celebration

Pretty Lights

Chill, Funk, Reggae, Jam Bands and Even-Tempo Music

Suggestion: Long Distance Runs, Trail Running, Yoga, Walking, Stretching and Breathing Techniques.
Sufjan Stevens: To Be Alone With You

Mumford and Sons: Little Lion Man, I Will Wait, Roll Away Your Stone, Winter Winds, Sigh No More, *The Cave, Hold on to What You Believe and I Gave You All.

Ray Lamontagne: Trouble, *You Can Bring Me Flowers, Within and pretty much all of his stuff (esp. during yoga)
Wilco: Jesus, etc. and Hummingbird
Loudon Wainwright III: Daughters
Colin Hay: Overkill, Waiting for my Real Life to Begin, Beautiful World, Maggie and I'm Doing Fine.
Swedish House Mafia: Don't You Worry Child
Soul Coughing: True Dreams of Wichita and Janine
The Lumineers: Ho Hey, Stubborn Love, Flowers in Your Hair
Norah Jones: Turn Me On, I've Got to See You Again, Little Broken Hearts, What Am I to You, Those Sweet Words and A Long Day is Over.
Regina Spektor: Fidelity 
Led Zeppelin: Anything and Everything
Al Green: How to Mend a Broken Heart, Tired of Being Alone, and Love and Happiness
Paul Simon: *Cecilia, Graceland, I Know What I Know, Kodachrome, Me and Julio and Under African Skies.
The Doors: Been Down So Long, Peace Frog, Love her Madly. When the Music's Over, The End, People are Strange, Hello, I Love You and L.A. Woman
Tom Petty: You Wreck Me, Honey bee, Wildflowers and Last Dance with MJ
Ne-Yo: Because of You, Closer and Let Me Love You
U2: Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Sweetest Thing and With or Without You
Carly Rae Jepsen: Call Me Maybe
Barenaked Ladies: If I had a Million Dollars, One Week and Pinch Me
Snow Patrol: Just Say Yes and New York
Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love
Beastie Boys: Paul Revere, Girls, Sabotage, Fight For Your Right to Party, Rhymin & Stealin, Hey Ladies, The New Style, Hold It Now, Hit It, Slow and Low and Time to Get Ill.
Beyonce: Best Thing I Never Had and If I Were A Boy
Janis Joplin: Mercedes Benz and Bobby Mcgee, All is Loneliness, Bye, Bye Baby, Down on Me, Summertime and Women is Losers.
Kanye West: Runaway, *All of the Lights, Jesus Walks and *Love Lockdown.

Cake: Palm of Your Hand, The Distance and the list goes on...

Passion Pit: *Take A Walk, *Moth's Wings, The Reeling, 

Nujabes: *Feather...all their music rocks!

Penguin Orchestra Cafe: *Perpetuum Mobile, Air A Danser, Yodel 1 & 2 and Paul's Dance.

Modest Mouse: The World at Large, Float On, The Good Times Are Killing Me, Gravity Rides Everything and Dramamine.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

Spoon: I Summon You, The Delicate Place, and Stay Don't Go,

The Beatles: All You Need Is Love, Dear Prudence, I am the Walrus, etc...anything

Empire of the Sun: Walking on a Sweet Dream

Phish: Lizards, Mike's Song, Loving Cup, Birds of a Feather, Brian and Robert, Heavy Things, Sample in a Jar, Tweezer and Wilson.

Perpetual Groove: Everything that you can...find shows on the Archives Link Below (Free Downloads)
Slightly Stoopid: All of their music is super chill.

The Verve: Bitter Sweet Symphony

Blur: Woo Hoo
Chris Brown: Forever, Don't Wake Me Up and Don't Judge Me.

Ben Harper: With My Own Two Hands, When She Believes and Burn One Down. 

Otis Redding: Everything...great during a sunny outdoor run!

Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey, Into The Mystic and Moondance

Need Some Free Downloads or Music Apps & Services??

Share The Wealth with Free Music Straight From the Artists at:

• The Archives: Click on the Artist, Show, and Right Click on the File under the VBR Category, Save Link As and that's all folks (it will automatically download the file and list it properly in your iTunes after importing the folder).
• Pandora: Pick your station, and it randomly generates similar artists. If you subscribe, there are no commercials.
• Spotify: A great Mobile App that allows you to design your own playlists with any track. THE BEST $9.99 I have ever spent!
• iTunes: Download Your Songs at iTunes.
• Stereodose: Pick your poison, this is the coolest yet!!

Have a Song Suggestion?? Don't forget to leave a Comment and Check Back for Updates!

Big Run, Big Eats!!

 There's Just Somethin' About an Amazin' Brunch...

The Flying Biscuit's Gotcha' Covered!

The Raleigh and Charlotte Crews reunited this past weekend to hippie it up at the Charlotte 5K Color Run! The event known as "The Happiest 5K on the Planet" was pretty happy, not gonna lie! Check out their website to catch this race in your city! In North Carolina?? Register now for the Winston-Salem Color Run on March 16th, 2013!

Before

And...After The Color Run

My friends were in town for the race weekend, and I am lucky that they enjoy trendy restaurants serving great eats and strong drinks..YES PLEASE! This past weekend, we checked out a couple great hot spots that I will definitely visit again and highly recommend.

The Liberty

Let's start with the Friday Pre-Race dinner fuel at The Liberty. We ordered their Pretzel Appetizer served with Cheddar Fondue and Spicy Mustard dipping sauces and opted for their delicious Organic Veggie Burgers sans fries. Instead, we all chose alternate options such as their Sherry-Rosemary-Lemon Mushrooms and Green Beans! In my opinion, they have one of the best Veggie Burgers in town. Check out their menu description for The Liberty Organic House-Made Veggie Burger including: goat cheese, organic greens, tomato, and Aioli. We added avocado and removed the Aioli leaving room for one more guilt-free beer. Need a cheat option?? Truffle Fries are super tasty!

The Flying Biscuit

We had an early race and after finishing decided it was Mimosas and Brunch Time...yyaaayyy! The Flying Biscuit Cafe is an amazing restaurant and very reasonably priced!!  There are two locations, and we visited the Park Road Shopping Center Restaurant which is similarly decorated but larger than the Stonecrest Location.

Super Awesome Mimosas...CHECK!

This is my new favorite brunch place...we had a table of 8 and not a single complaint! Go Team! My Roomie and I, had the Egg-Stravaganza: (straight from their menu) Two Large Farm Fresh Eggs served with Chicken Sausage, Crisp Turkey Bacon, Creamy Dreamy Grits, Plus Whole Wheat French Toast topped with Raspberry Sauce and Honey Creme Anglaise...and if that isn't enough, we added an order of Rosemary Potatoes too...yikes! My friends ordered the High Flyer, Meggxican Wrap and Turkey Hash which all looked super yummy as well. Check out these places with your friends and family members...NO MORE IHOP!

The Egg-Stravaganza NOM! NOM! NOM!

And Mrs. Kettler's Breakfast...

The High Flyer

I am thankful for Great Friends, Great Eats, and Great Runs!